Tag Archives: beaches

Being Touristy with Emel – Day 1

Posted on by
2

For our first day of Emel‘s vacation we planned an incredibly full day of fun! We started with the Kuli’ou’ou Ridge Trail hike. It was raining for a bit but turned out to be a pretty day, so the view at the top was definitely worth the hike up there. After that, we headed around the east side of the island where we saw TONS of whales. We captured a few pictures of the baby whales jumping out of the water (so incredibly cute as they didn’t make it very far out). There were also two swimming SO close to the shore…I was super happy she got to see them! We stopped and had the best fish tacos on the island and some veggie nachos at Surg’s and then headed to Bellows for some beach time. It was a beautiful day to hang out and relax after our hike! After that, we wandered around Kailua and got some frozen yogurt and toured the beautiful Lanikai houses and stopped at the famous beach, then headed back to Honolulu to get ready for a fun night out. We decided to head into Waikiki (so she could see all of the tourists) and had dinner with a few friends. Then we ventured to Duke’s for some of their famous Mai Tais. It was a jam-packed day and I’m SO excited she came to visit!!

Emel and I at the top of Kuli`ou`ou trail.
Josh and I at the top of Kuli`ou`ou trail.
Emel taking pictures of the beautiful windward coast.
All of us at the top of the trail.
The baby whale! It was so small (only a few tons). There were tons of them.
The two whales close to the shore. SO close!
Fish tacos and nachos. SO good!
Emel in the ocean at Bellows beach.
Mai Tais at Duke’s!
Emel and I at Duke’s enjoying our drinks.
All of us at Duke’s!

The Big Island: Trip 1 – Day 3

Posted on by
2

The third day started out with another amazing breakfast and oddly enough no rain! We had pancakes, fruit, toast, coffee and juice. The other two cats also studied us during breakfast, attempting to decide if they should bother with us.

The fruit was SO good!
Pancakes, Toast, Fruit, Juice, Coffee..Delicious!
The black cat staring at Josh…determining if he is worth his time.
The other black cat that jumped up behind Josh’s chair after he was gone.
I had never seen a pineapple actually still growing before.
Me looking at the cat.

 

After breakfast, we packed up and headed to the easternmost part of the island. Since the winds come from this direction, scientists use this “untouched air” as a benchmark to compare to air in other areas around the world. The lava on this side of the island was also incredibly difficult to walk through!

Josh felt it necessary to take pictures of the jeep…everywhere…
So difficult to walk on.
Pretty shot with the ocean in the background.

 

After we stopped for a bit, we headed down a 4WD road to Champagne Pond. We took the road for about a mile along some very bumpy lava and ended up at the pond. The pond is a calm, protected ocean inlet that is completely clear. You could see to the bottom…and it was heated! It was about 90 degrees. When I got in, four little yellow and black striped fish surrounded my legs (of course). So I immediately got out and let Josh entertain the fish while I took pictures.

On the way to Champagne Pond we stopped b/c the cliffs were amazing.
Josh in the trees surrounding the backside of the pond.
Champagne Pond..it was so calm!
Josh swimming in the pond.
Josh..being forced to take a picture.
Me..not swimming and only going up to my knees.
Josh looking for fish.

 

Unfortunately, after our visit to the pond, we got a call telling us our Lava Hike was canceled due to weather. We were both pretty bummed as we had been looking forward to it all day. But we decided to grab some lunch in Pahoa and head back to the Volcanoes National Park to see Chain of Craters Road in the daylight. We had lunch at Kaleo’s and it was just as good as the dinner we had there the night before!

This soup was amazing!
My veggie wrap..so good!

 

Back we went to the park for our third and final time for this trip. It was definitely a good decision to go back. Chain of Craters Road was beautiful during the daylight (pictures below). At the end, you can hike to the current lava flow. Had we known this, we would have planned a bit better and hiked there ourselves. But it takes about 3 1/2 hours to get there and back and we were running out of daylight…so we made the safe decision to come back and do it on another trip (even though we both were DYING to go).

View of the ocean from Chain of Craters Road
Newer lava at the end of Chain of Craters Road
Holei Sea Arch
The view from near the ocean, back up to where the higher part of Chain of Craters Road is.
Walking toward the end of Chain of Craters Road. The start of a rainbow over the lava field.
The road literally ends where lava started to pour over it. Incredible.
Lava on the road.
More lava where the road is/was/should be.
Newer lava
I thought this was hilarious. The road closed sign buried in lava…with a rainbow as the backdrop.
Crack in the lava…they were everywhere.
The end of the “trail”. There wasn’t really a trail…you were just climbing over lots of lava.
Lava Field
Me on top of a pile of lava…Josh was making me laugh.
More Lava Field
Annnddd more lava.
The rainbow was getting closer…signaling our time to start hiking back!

 

We headed back up Chain of Craters Road and out of the park towards the Puna area to check out Kehena black sand beach. It was actually kind of hard to find. It was created by the 1955 lava flow and then it sank three feet all at once in 1975 because of an earthquake. We ended up there during high surf and it was ridiculous. The waves were HUGE and covered almost the entire beach when the tide came in. It was beautiful!

The rocks at Kehena black sand beach. Beautiful!
Black sand! beautiful
So pretty!
The waves were incredible.

 

After visiting the beach, we headed to the Kalapana Cafe for dinner (Josh) and ice cream (me). Yes…I had ice cream for dinner and it was amazing! We headed back to the B&B to pack up as we had an early morning with a lava boat tour!

The Big Island: Trip 1 – Day 2

Posted on by
3

Our second day started out with a delicious breakfast of french toast, tons of fruit, toast, juice and coffee. The breakfast set up at our B&B was fantastic. Our B&B also had three cats..which I loved of course. I forced them to be my friends :).

Breakfast Bar of fruit and cereal..just the beginning!
Our cute little table set up for breakfast.
Juice, coffee, fruit, toast, french toast. So good!
Pretty flowers on our table.
Josh having his picture taken against his will.
My buddy at breakfast. One of the cats! 🙂

 

After breakfast we headed to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for the first of many trips. It was about an hour away from our B&B and yes it rained almost the entire drive to the park.  We arrived and started with the steam vents. These were incredible…especially since they were super warm and it was cold and raining. I would have stood there all day if Josh would have let me. The steam vents are created when rain seeps into the ground and is then heated by the Kilauea volcano, thus creating steam coming out of the earth. It pretty incredible to see. This was a positive to the massive amount of rain they were receiving. More rain = more steam.

Information about the steam vents.
Steam Vent in the sidewalk that they had cut out.
The numerous steam vents. Too many to count.
Josh warming up with the steam.
A small steam vent. The colors were so interesting.
A picture of the steam coming right at us. Foggy.
A larger steam vent. Again love the colors of the earth.

 

From here we went to visit the sulphur banks…along the path were some of the steam vents, which did not smell, but the closer we got to the sulphur banks the stronger the unpleasant smell. Sulphur banks are created when hydrogen sulphide gas and steam form deposits of sulphur, gypsum and hematite on the ground. It was pretty, but not the best smelling thing. A highlight of our walk is that we passed a guy with a Purdue hat. Boiler up!

Me at the start of the trail to the sulphur banks.
Sulphur Banks

 

After the sulphur banks we headed to the Kilauea Overlook to get a good view of Kilauea Crater and the Halema`uma`u Crater. Halema`uma`u is said to be the home of Madame Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess.

The edge of Kilauea Crater.
Halema`uma`u Crater
The bottom of Kilauea Crater.
Halema`uma`u Crater and the steam rising from it.
A closer view of Halema`uma`u Crater.

 

After viewing the crater at a few locations, the road was closed so we had to turn around and head back the other way. There is a road (Crater Rim Dr.) that goes around the entire crater. It changes on what and when parts of it are closed, depending on the volcanic activity. We definitely learned that information you read in a book or looked up online literally changed on a daily basis. It was very hard to find information on certain hikes, etc. because of the always changing landscape. It definitely made it more of an adventure!

Our next stop was Thurston Lava Tube. Unfortunately only the lighted portion was open to the public. There is a darker section that is usually open, but has been closed due to recent volcanic activity causing rocks to fall in the tube. We were ready to explore the darker side, but the lit area was still very cool to see.

The entrance to Thurston Lava Tube from the inside of the tube.
Inside Thurston Lava Tube.
Leaving the Thurston Lava Tube. It was super short.
The outside of the Thurston Lava Tube.
Josh in the pretty wild life posing for a picture.
I thought this looked like an elephant.

 

Next, we headed down Chain of Craters road for a bit to Mauna Ulu, the source of the second longest eruption (1969 – 1974). Along the way we stopped at Lua Manu Crater which is 109 yards in diameter and last had lava flow into it during the 1974 eruption. After Lua Manu we stopped at Puhimau Crater, which still has magma activity flowing beneath it.

Lua Manu Crater
Lua Manu Crater
Josh taking a picture of Puhimau Crater.
Puhimau Crater
Puhimau Crater
Puhimau Crater
Puhimau Crater

 

After these two stops we made it to Mauna Ulu for a short hike up to Pu`u Huluhulu. The hike consisted of different markers pointing out types of lava, trees, regrowth, devastation, etc. It was an interesting hike with some cool views. It was also neat to walk across so many different types of lava that had hardened.

The beginning of the Pu’u Huluhulu hike.
Lava Field
Lava Field
1974 Lava Flow
1974 Lava Flow
Lava. Love the way it forms. Pretty cool to look at.
The beginning of the path in the lava field. Not the easiest trail to follow.
Lava
Lava. Love this picture.
Clearly we had been rained on in this picture.
An area where lava had broken off and formed a small inlet/cave.
Josh walked through the lava field.
Lava Field
Mauna Ulu
Cool dial at the top that pointed in the directions of all the different craters/lava flows.
View of the forest in one direction.
Another view from the top.
Yet another view from the top.
I don’t remember which crater this was :).
Mauna Ulu again
Forest down below.
Lehua Blossom. The start of an ‘Ohi’a tree.
Huge area where lava broke off. Careful walking!

 

After finishing our hike, we headed out of the park back towards our B&B. The current lava flow is sometimes visible at the end of Highway 130. So at the recommendation from our B&B owner, we headed over there around 5:00 p.m. to see what was going on. We got there and were told that the only things visible at this time were steam from the lava hitting the ocean and steam rising from up on the hill where the lava flow was. The lava had reached a point in this flow where it was mostly flowing in lava tubes to the ocean. Which made for great ocean viewing. Luckily, we had scheduled a boat tour for Monday morning to see this in action! This most recent lava flow had completely wiped out the historic fishing town of Kalapana. A few people have rebuilt their homes on top of the lava (picture below). It was very interesting to see. The road to the viewing point is public property, but the lava field on either side of it is private property and you are not allowed to walk on it. There is a guard at the end of the path who gave us the tip to head back to the park to view Kilauea Caldera at night as they would have the best “show” for the evening. The absolute BEST thing about this walk out to the viewing area was that there was a giant double rainbow over the lava field. It is the must stunning rainbow I have seen to this date since my time living in Hawaii. Of course, shortly after viewing this it started to pour rain again. However, getting soaked again was worth seeing something so incredible.

Houses rebuilt on the lava field
New lava from the last couple years.
More of the newer lava.
Beautiful rainbow over the lava field and houses.
Josh and I with the rainbow.

 

After stopping at the viewing point we headed to the end of Highway 137, only about five minutes away. At the end of this highway is a little cafe and the start of the new Kaimu Black Sand Beach. What was previously Kaimu beach was a beautiful black sand beach with many gorgeous palm trees lining the shore. It was eventually, completely covered in 1990 by the Kilauea eruption. Today, new palm trees have been planted on this brand new shoreline land in an effort to restore Kaimu beach.

The rainbow on the way to Kaimu Beach. Incredible.
The new palm trees planted in an effort to restore Kaimu beach.
More palm trees. There were rows and rows of them!
Kaimu beach. It was beautiful!
More of Kaimu beach. You can see how small it is, signifying how new it is.
The black sand. It really was something else!
Kaimu beach shoreline.
The rocks here were still pretty intense.
Josh and I at Kaimu beach.

 

Next, we headed back to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to check out Halema`uma`u Crater at night. We had no idea what to expect…well we expected it to be raining…but we didn’t know what to expect besides that. It looked like a fireball had lit up the sky. We drove in and could see the clouds above the crater illuminated well before we got close to it. The clouds were a light orange from afar. We got to the Volcano Observatory and couldn’t believe what we saw. I would try to describe it, but the pictures will do a MUCH better job of it!

Halema`uma`u Crater at night.

 

After many pictures, rain drops and getting very cold, we got back in the car and decided to drive Chain of Craters Road all the way to see if we could see anything. The road was pitch black and it was raining, so it made it interesting for Josh to drive. We saw two things on this trip down the road: 1. We saw a red glow in the distance of the current vent and 2. Stars were super bright out here because it was so dark. The pictures does not do them justice!

Chain of Craters Road Stars

 

We finally headed back to the B&B after a ridiculous amount of driving for the day!